Industrial environments typically have safety systems that include alarms for notifying workers of hazardous conditions (i.e., hazards). Commonly, these alarms present limited information and are often merely audio/visual alarm signals that indicate the detection of some hazard.
Workers may follow prescribed exit plans in response to the alarm signals. When these exit plans are blocked, the worker must choose an alternate route using only their knowledge of the workplace and their knowledge of the hazard. Often, it is impossible for a worker to understand the nature or extent of a hazard, and as a result, the worker must guess.
Augmented reality (AR) displays are becoming more common in industrial workplaces. The AR displays present a user with a live direct or indirect view of the user's environment. This view is supplemented with computer-generated information (e.g., sound, video, graphics, text, data, etc.), which may be overlaid with objects/areas in the displayed view to provide contextual information. This contextual information helps a worker understand and avoid hazards in the workplace.
Therefore, a need exists for personal safety system or display that utilizes augmented reality to help a user understand and respond to hazards.